Written By onci on Sunday, January 8, 2012 | 8:17 AM

The Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board test (PLAB) is the assessment procedure conducted by the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom that is required for overseas doctors outside the European Union before they can practice medicine in the UK.

The PLAB test has 2 parts:

Has EMQs (extended matching questions) and SBAs (Single Best Answer questions), This part is conducted in a number of countries including Egypt (Cairo), India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.

Part 2 : Consists of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). This Part is available only in United Kingdom. It consists of 14 clinical stations, a pilot station and a rest station. The pilot station is usually unannounced and mixed with the clinical stations. The marks for the pilot station do not count towards the final score. All the stations are of five minutes duration. The level of difficulty of the clinical part of the PLAB exam is set at the level of competence of a senior house officer (SHO) in a first appointment in a UK hospital. The skills assessed in this exam are: clinical examination, practical skills, communication skills, and history taking.